Thread 15 - TalkLair: “I Can't Lie To You About Your Chances, But... You Have My Sympathies.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 14).

Autumn seems to have gone straight into winter. It's cold, wet and windy. In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

I remember an old chap in Bradford-on-Avon who drove around in an old Baby Austin (remember them?) whose bodywork seemed to made largely of filler. He never exceeded about 15 mph.

VictorianBigot · Today 14:07

I hated getting in the car with my mum. She couldn't drive, so my dad was the driver, and she spent every journey snapping at him to slow down and not to overtake.

She's not generally like that. She does have unpleasant effects when travelling, after a stroke, 15 years ago. It's improved, but she sometimes feels woozy and if he misses a turn, it really annoys her! She's not on at him constantly, just at the most stressful moments...

I think the friend was just extremely hesitant, wouldn't pull out etc.

When we were kids my dad had a few accidents because he got distracted by views and drove into other cars. The main one I remember was when King Kong was put up in the Bullring in Birmingham and he paid attention to that instead of the road. He never did stop getting distracted but got better at not crashing.

DH is 82 and feels like a very safe driver to me. On the other hand, my best friend here is 81 and I haven't allowed her to drive me for about ten years now because she is a lousy driver. I don't think she drives anywhere except very locally in town nowadays - certainly not at night or on the turnpike.

I still feel safe as a driver to me, and nobody has complained about feeling unsafe with me. I was, however, slightly horrified to discover when I rented a car during my recent UK stay that car rental companies generally won't rent to you when you're over 80. In the past, DH and I have usually split the driving when abroad on holiday, but our next trip (France, next June) will rely solely on me.

Particularly over here, where public transport is so limited, it really feels limiting not to be able to drive. DH has a cousin who lives only about three miles from us, who has not had a car for several years now. He goes everywhere in the city by public transport or Uber, but on the other hand never seems to go out of the city at all (or anywhere else in fact).

Arf!

Someone drove into my (parked) car last year while looking for the Aurora Borealis.

@VictorianBigot that's kind of understandable, I'd probably do the same to be honest. I like being the passenger because I like looking at views.

I can't drive so I'm always the passenger. I've been in the car with other people's aged Ps driving and one of them was "Oh my god I am never getting in a car with you driving ever again." so age needs to be taken into account but some people are just shit drivers whatever their age.

Re UIKY I hadn't thought about the dad not being her biological parent at all, my brain just went "he's killed someone else over there." When I went to look up what had happened it seems her body was found in 1990 although it was a long time before it was linked to him. I'm guessing that some of the Amsterdam stuff was part of the made up bit of the show or bits that were left out because we certainly didn't get the information that her body had been found. To add more would might be a spoiler so I won't add any more.

God yeah. I was a passenger in my neighbour's car once and it was terrifying. At one point I thought she was going to crash and shouted 'STOP!' which was a bit embarrassing but I was scared.

I couldn't find any reference to a DNA test at the time, or much about MH at all. I wonder how much press coverage there was about the unidentified body. It's awful that some parts of her have never been found.

There's a documentary to go alongside it https://www.itv.com/watch/until-i-kill-you:-the-real-story/10a3963/10a3963a0001

I'm only half-way through, but I expect I'll watch the docu afterwards.

I'm looking forward to rounding it all off with the documentary and hoping for some answers there.

When did this actually happen though? DNA testing didn't really come in until the mid-nineties did it?

Mid-eighties - in Leicester!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Jeffreys

Kucinghitam · Today 06:53

Mid-eighties - in Leicester!

I'm pretty sure there was a Crimewatch Special about it being used to help convict Colin Pitchfork.

Don't know about Crimewatch, but several years ago there was a docudrama about it, Code of a Killer. They filmed it on campus (Leicester Uni) at the time we were working there - 80s-style police cars whizzing around.

Oh, I saw that one, it was really good, in my opinion.

Well as a graduate of Leicester Uni (1972 BA, 1973 MA) I should have remembered that more accurately!

I’ve added that to my watchlist @Kucinghitam.

On the way back from Manchester today I popped into one of the Asian shops in Bolton and bought some tur dal (toovar dal). I'm sure I saw a great recipe (mixed with another dal, as I recall) linked hereabouts in the last week or two. I remember remarking, I've got every ingredient except tur dal, and now I've got that. My attempts with MN's less-than-superb search facility hasn't rung any bells, can anyone recall? I've got a feeling it was from one of our regulars. Veg? Brit?

Wasn't me, duc, but I wish it was because, whatever it is, I want to eat it. I love dal.

I think it was something like this. To me, the spice quants look pretty small in this, and I would at least double them.

www.veganricha.com/daal-series-yellow-mung-and-toor-with/

Wasn't me either, duc. Sorry.

I'd definitely want a great deal more garlic, though that goes for most recipes! It's quite a small quantity of dal, but the spicing does look designed for American tastes. I recommend Madhur Jaffrey for dahl recipes.

As for canola (rapeseed) oil, that stuff is poisonous to me (causes gut problems and now, in an exciting new development, facial hives) and seems to be absolutely everywhere. It's even, unlabelled, used in sunflower oil. The Food Standards Agency knows about this but says the number of people involved is quite small and so there's no need to label it. The NHS shrugs and prescribes an antihistamine cream that warns you not to use it on your face!

I'm off out for lunch tomorrow at The Cook's Tale in Canterbury (yum!) and rang them up this morning to ask if they use it. Got a lovely bloke on the phone who said goodness me, certainly not! He then rang me back 5 minutes later and told me exactly what oil they use. Douze points for that.

On edit: I see I have spelled it both dal and dahl. I should probably throw dhal into the mix.

Canola is an American thing, though, isn't it?